ABSTRACT
Frantic’s success has been driven in part by a long-standing focus on education, accessibility and outreach, fuelled by the founding directors’ own professional development through a form of self-curated apprenticeship rather than any formalised training. Frantic Theatre Company was officially formed in 1994 by Graham, Hoggett and fellow Swansea student Vicki Middleton, who organised, administrated and marketed the company. By early 1996, owing to a clash with another ‘Frantic Theatre Company’, they became Frantic Assembly. The 1980s saw the spread of a neoliberal agenda throughout British politics and society, through the policies and principles of Thatcher’s Conservative government. Much art and culture of the time forged its identity through vehement resistance to the oppressions its makers perceived in the political mainstream. Volcano Theatre was part of this post-punk subculture: they articulated symptoms of, and responses to, demographic changes which accompanied Thatcherite free-market policies.
